17 March 2020
Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has kicked off the Healthcare Entrepreneur Exchange Programme (HEEP) with Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester (United Kingdom). HEEP is the first open innovation and entrepreneurship programme jointly organised by two European hospitals.
The participants at both hospitals are from clinical and care environments, and will pitch their proposals for innovative solutions and technology. The five best from each centre will get mentoring sessions to develop their business plans and, after that, will participate in a pitching competition in September to choose three winners from each hospital.
In the final phase ...
11 March 2020
The Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) obtained more than €1 million in profit by licensing the patent it holds to a new treatment for a rare mitochondrial disease caused by TK2 deficiency. It is the biggest financial profit generated by a Spanish research institute from a patent through tech transfer.
In 2013, Dr Ramon Martí, head of the VHIR Research Group on Neuromuscular and Mitochondrial Diseases, and Dr Michio Hirano from Columbia University in New York, discovered this new treatment. Then they licensed the patent to the company Modis Therapeutics (California, United States) which was later acquired by Zogenix ...
11 March 2020
Mediktor, a start-up with offices in Barcelona and New York and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has launched a test to assess the symptoms of Covid-19 using artificial intelligence.
The test will be available online in several languages in order to provide support for healthcare systems around the world.
Users have to answer a series of questions from a doctor and the system will tell them how probable it is they have the Covid-19 virus. It also offers a list of conditions with similar symptoms to Covid-19 and a recommendation on what to do next. It is a pre-diagnosis and does ...
11 March 2020
Aortyx, a spin-off of the IQS School of Engineering and Hospital Clinic Barcelona that specialises in creating endovascular devices for aortic dissections, has increased its capital by €650,000 in a round led by Genesis Ventures.
“This investment will allow us to continue meeting the deadlines we’ve set and moving towards our goal of launching the best possible product to market,” says Dr Jordi Martorell, co-founder and CEO of Aortyx.
The company has begun animal studies and will start industrialisation of its medical device with the goal of marketing it by 2024.
Both Aortyx and Genesis Ventures are CataloniaBio ...
11 March 2020
Ferrer, a pharmaceutical corporation and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, announced that Indian start-up Wellthy Therapeutics is the winner of the Ferrer 4 Future open innovation programme. The challenge included showcasing 65 start-ups from all over the world.
The two companies will sign a partnership agreement to develop a tool to help improve care for chronic patients.
The Ferrer 4 Future programme was launched by the company in November 2019. "Innovation and digital health solutions are key to finding new ways of improving patients’ clinical outcomes and quality across the patient care value chain. That is why we ...
4 March 2020
CataloniaBio & HealthTech has appointed a new president and four new members of the current Board of Directors (2018-2022), as per the association’s bylaws. At the general assembly of members held this morning in Barcelona, Judit Anido was appointed president of CataloniaBioHT for the next two years, replacing Jaume Amat who moves into the position of first vice-president.
Co-founder and general manager of Mosaic Biomedicals (a Northern Biologics company), Anido is the first woman to lead the association of companies in the life sciences and health arena in Catalonia.
The new board members are Marta Palicio, Chief Innovation Officer ...
26 February 2020
Onalabs, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has received a Startup Capital grant from ACCIÓ for €75,000 to kick off their initial business plan.
The start-up has opened a round of funding to speed launch to market of its non-invasive device that monitors lactate in athletes’ sweat to assess their physical conditions at all times and optimise performance using an app for mobile phones or smart watches. Lactate is currently measured using a blood test.
Onalabs has developed its own sensor technology platform for remote monitoring of biomarkers.
As CEO Josep Cardona explained, the company expects to begin marketing ...
19 February 2020
The CataloniaBio & HealthTech Innovation Workgroup (WG) brought together more than 60 executives, investors and professionals in the Boosting Digital Health Innovation session on 17 February in the Barcelona Science Park to analyse the current situation and the key challenges in digital health.
"The development of digital health is accelerating worldwide and in Catalonia too. We need to promote new models and complementarity between all stakeholders in the health and life sciences ecosystem, and here CataloniaBioHT plays a key role as an association that represents the business world in Catalonia," said Isabel Amat, Global Head of ...
18 February 2020
Oncoheroes Biosciences, the first company exclusively focused on the development of innovative medicines to treat cancer in children and adolescents, signed an agreement with Dreamers Startup Ventures to invest up to $1.1 million in the coming months. The biotech company is currently raising a 5 million preserie A round.
It is an important financial achievement to continue working on the clinical development plan for volasertib, its first asset in-licensed from Boehringer Ingelheim.
Oncoheroes is a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member based in Barcelona and Boston.
Photo: Cesare Spadoni, co-founder and COO of Oncoheroes, receiving an award ...
16 February 2020
iVascular, a company that specialises in advanced medical therapies and devices for vascular diseases, is celebrating its tenth anniversary, present in 70 countries.
“We’re a creative, committed team that is passionate about working to save lives,” explains CEO Lluís Duocastella.
iVascular is innovation and high technology. Currently, the company has a 1,250-m2 R&D centre in Sant Vicenç dels Horts (Barcelona) and has a vertical integration project in place to cover the whole product process, from design, development and manufacturing to commercialisation.
Over these 10 years, iVascular has found a place on the international market thanks to its ...
12 February 2020
The CataloniaBio & HealthTech Regulatory Affairs Workgroup (WG) hosted its fifth Hard Reg Café, on 7 February at the Barcelona Science Park, focusing on the new European database on medical devices (EUDAMED) with expert Richard Houlihan. Many medical technology companies and start-ups in Catalonia were interested in the session, which brought together more than 50 professionals after reaching capacity just days after the first announcement.
The presentation was led by WG coordinators and CataloniaBioHT board members Lidia Cánovas (Asphalion) and Lluís Chico (NEOS Surgery).
“The European Committee will launch EUDAMED in May 2022, without any more delays, but ...
11 February 2020
QMENTA, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has closed a round of funding for more than €1.4 million through Capital Cell.
Created in 2013 in Boston and Barcelona, QMENTA provides a best-in-class, cloud-based data management platform that houses a patented, AI-powered analytical algorithms as well as a marketplace of partnered algorithms.
QMENTA’s integrated solution enables clinicians to diagnose and treat brain disease with certainty and speed anywhere and anytime. The company currently has a team of 31 experts in neuroimaging, AI and engineering.
Rob Bancroft, new CEO
Along with further good news, the company has also announced the ...
10 February 2020
Avinent, a CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, finished 2019 with €32 million in revenue after a firm commitment to innovation, science and technological capacity.
Last year’s results and the new projects for this year, like finishing the new corporate headquarters in Santpedor, were presented on 17 January at the company’s annual event at Món Sant Benet.
The two newest business divisions, CAD CAM and digital health, are growing both in Spain and abroad. The CAD CAM line offers high-quality personalised implant and prosthetics service, and the digital health division provides personalised solutions for the maxillofacial sector (OMFS).
From March 12 to ...
7 February 2020
Qiagen, one of the main publicly traded medical diagnostics companies, has announced it hopes to have a test to detect the coronavirus by the end of this month.
The company is studying several options, including the DiagCORE® solution from Catalan company STAT-Dx (acquired by Qiagen in 2018).
DiagCORE® allows for fast molecular diagnosis of serious infectious diseases, which could be key in detecting the coronavirus quickly. The process is fully automated and gets results in roughly one hour, which are interpreted by integrated software and shown to healthcare professionals using an intuitive user interface. In this interview with CNBC ...
6 February 2020
Asphalion, a science and regulatory affairs consultancy and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has inaugurated new offices at Wells House 80 Upper Street in London to bolster the services it offers companies with current or future operations in the United Kingdom.
“The United Kingdom is one of the most important healthcare and life sciences markets in Europe. Setting up Asphalion UK Ltd. will make our interactions with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency easier and help our clients tackle the challenges on the horizon,” explains Núria Romero, managing director of the consultancy firm.
Asphalion’s central headquarters are in ...
29 January 2020
CataloniaBio & HealthTech is launching the sixth edition of its Biosuccess Award, an initiative that will recognise the best business milestone of 2019 in the health and life sciences sector in Catalonia. The deadline for submitting candidacies is 14 February, using this form.
The winner will receive an honorific award at the 2020 CataloniaBioHT Gala Dinner, the benchmark networking dinner in the sector that brings together over 200 entrepreneurs, executives and investors, as well as politicians and figures from business and scientific institutions. The CataloniaBioHT Gala Dinner will be held on 16 March at the Palau de la Música in ...
29 January 2020
Seven CataloniaBio & HealthTech member companies are participating in Arab Health 2020, the most important medical technology fair in the Middle East, held from 27 to 30 January at the World Trade Center in Dubai. This year, Arab Health has brought together over 106,000 professionals and 4,250 exhibitors from 159 countries, with support from the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Health and Prevention.
Catalan companies Fertypharm, Kiversal, Made of Genes, Mediktor, Mitelos, NEOS Surgery and Vecmedical have travelled to Dubai to identify new business opportunities and present their innovative products in audition, fertility, genomics, neurosurgery and general surgery ...
28 January 2020
Senolytic Therapeutics (Senolytx), a biotechnology firm based in Barcelona and Boston and CataloniaBio & HealthTech member, has been awarded a Neotec grant for €250,000 from the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness.
Senolytx is developing a new class of senolytic drugs, which eliminate damaged cells. “This area has a lot of potential and high impact, as we’re living in an increasingly aged society. For the first time, we’re treating age-related diseases by targeting cellular senescence,” explained CEO and co-founder Marc Ramis at the Longevity World Forum.
The company’s top priority for 2020 is preclinical development of its candidate ...
22 January 2020
The Bosch i Gimpera Foundation has compiled all the experimental biomedical models developed by researchers at the University of Barcelona (UB) in the first edition of the Catalogue of Preclinical Models in Biomedical Research.
The catalogue aims to be a tool for researchers to search for a model based on the disease or process they are studying. It will be updated periodically. It includes both models based on cell lines (in vitro and ex vivo) and animal models (in vivo). It also presents two UB research groups that specialise in creating new experimental models: Celltec and Ceremet.
Preclinical models are ...
22 January 2020
Vytrus Biotech, a Catalan biotechnology firm that works in plant stem-cell cultures and the production of active ingredients for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic sectors, is celebrating its tenth anniversary. This comes at a time of growth for the company, which expects to go public in late 2020. Newspaper El Periódico published a report on the company, with the title The Year of Vytrus Biotech (in Spanish).
Over the past three years, Vytrus’ sales have seen over 30% growth thanks to nine products on the market and distribution deals in 54 countries. The firm has 22 professionals on staff (35% in ...